Sacramento cops still love hassling Occupy protesters, even at a peaceful vigil for Kelly Thomas

Demonstrators gather at a Sacramento vigil for Thomas Kelly,
a Southern California homeless man who was beaten and killed by law enforcement.

Looks like Sacramento city police just can’t get enough of harassing homeless people and former Occupy Wall Street activists.

Consider: There sure were a lot of police—on horseback and bicycles, in cars, on foot—in Midtown last night. But it wasn’t Second Saturday. And while there was a shooting on light rail, this police presence had nothing to do with guns on a train.

The dozens of cops were there to keep a watchful eye on a peaceful candlelight vigil.

The occasion: Activists honoring Kelly Thomas, the 31-year-old mentally ill man who was brutally beaten to death by law enforcement in Fullerton, Calif., in 2011 (see video and photo). Thomas recently was in the news because his assailants got off when a judge ruled them not guilty of murder.

Here in Sacramento, local homeless man “Faygo” organized a march of a few dozen activists last night, Thursday. They started on J Street, walked a few blocks to L, then over to Gov. Jerry Brown’s office/apartment on J and 16th streets, chanting that the governor give Thomas justice by holding the law-enforcement officers who beat him accountable.

Faygo says city police followed he and fellow demonstrators for the entire march, adn yelled at them to stay out of the street.

When the vigil ended, on the corner of J and 20th streets just after 7 p.m., multiple police on horseback monitored the activists. Police vehicles rode switchbacks along the alley-ways, and bike cops patrolled the sidewalks, too.

No arrests or citations were made.

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